The Spectator’s Notes | 8 October 2005

Blackpool

‘With his designer wife, his two children (there is a third on the way) and his Notting Hill home, Mr Cameron does not look like a traditional Tory,’ I read in the papers. In what sense is this not a traditional Tory set of attributes? True, most Tories do not have designer wives — either in the sense of ‘designer t-shirt’ or in the sense meant here, that Mrs Cameron is a designer (of handbags) — but it is perfectly normal for them to have two children with a third on the way and, if they are rich, to have a house in Notting Hill. The thought behind sentences such as that quoted is that Mr Cameron is the candidate for change and therefore, as night follows day, cannot be a traditional Tory. In fact, though, one reason Mr Cameron has done very well here this week is that he is a traditional Tory, and of a familiar, comforting sort. He is exactly like the son-in-law of the party activists in the posher class of constituency. He is intelligent without being intellectual, successful without being flash, a gentleman without being a snob, good-looking without being disturbingly sexy. There are Camerons in every generation of the Conservative party — one thinks of Ian Lang, say, or of the various modest war heroes of the 1945 generation — and they are good for it. What they are not — and are not supposed to be — is original, innovative, bold. This makes me wonder whether Mr Cameron can bring about the transformation required. On the other hand, though, it guarantees him trust. He seems nice and sensible and fresh, people think, so if he insists on change, he might well be right, whereas when we heard it from Portillo we felt nervous.